Dracula Movie Critique – Besson’s Love-Struck Revamp of the Classic Horror Story is Outlandish but Engaging

Maybe audiences aren’t clamoring for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for polished extravagance. However, it has to be said: his richly designed romantic vampire tale boasts bold vision and flair – and amid its theatrical camp, I might just favor over Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, like a particular moment that appears to show a land border between France and Romania.

Christoph Waltz as a Witty Yet Careworn Clergyman Hunting Vampires

Christoph Waltz embodies a humorous yet burdened cleric fighting vampires – I can’t believe he hasn’t played such a part earlier – who finds himself in Paris in 1889 during the centennial of the French Revolution. So does the sinister Dracula, played by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone similar to the voice of Gru by Steve Carell from the Despicable Me comedies. This is a part suits him perfectly.

The Plot: A Chronicle of Longing

The plot unfolds as follows: Dracula has been restlessly roaming the globe in torment for 400 years since he became undead, a penalty due to his blasphemous mourning over the death of his spouse Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, the offspring of Rosanna Arquette). Dracula has been searching, searching, searching for a female who might be the return of his lost love. As ill fortune would have it, the fortunate female turns out to be Mina (also Bleu, of course), the modest betrothed of Dracula’s feeble property handler, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who has recently been to the count’s castle to discuss his real estate holdings and the small picture of the winsome Mina attracted Dracula’s gaze.

Besson’s Direction and Humorous Style

Besson structures Dracula’s middle-section history of worldwide travels in various outrageous costumes confidently, and he doesn’t shy away from giving us some comedy moments with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – for example the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to end his own life after Elisabeta’s death, along with comical sequences that follow Dracula sprays himself with a specific fragrance in historic Florence, which makes him unavoidably attractive to females. Absurd yet engaging.

Dracula can be streamed online from 1 December and on DVD and Blu-ray from December 22nd. It plays in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.